Scotland coach Craig Levein will keep on picking young English talent

Scotland coach
Craig Levein says he is not concerned about upsetting the Football Association by picking players who also qualify for England.

Craig Levein is not concerned about upsetting the England authorities by his Scotland picks

Highly-rated Blackpool striker Matt Phillips, who was born in England and has won Under 19 and Under 20 caps for England, has been named in Scotland’s squad for the friendly in Slovenia on February 29 because he is eligible through a grandparent.

There are six other England-born players in the squad and Levein has not given up hope of attracting Liverpool’s Jonjo Shelvey, Tottenham’s Steven Caulker and Chelsea’s Josh McEachran into the squad.

‘I think it’s really important that we widen the net and give ourselves the best chance,’ said Levein, who said there had been ‘indications’ that the FA were ‘not very happy’.

‘Other countries have been doing what we are attempting to do for years now. It is no coincidence that a lot of those countries have been very successful,’ he added,’I’m very proud of my Scottish roots but my job, most importantly, is to give us the best chance possible of qualifying for [the 2014 World Cup in] Brazil. It’s as simple as that.’